When we undermine someone’s life-altering issue by framing it as something that everyone deals with, we dismiss the magnitude of the societal problems that contextualize bigotry, we disrespect marginalized people’s ability to assess their own problems, we discourage the pursuit of solutions for widespread unearned suffering, and we sign off on allowing that suffering to continue.
Tag: Privilege
The Complexion For The Protection: White Privilege in Media
As always, the beauty of guest posts on this blog is that they enable Yopp to include subjects and types of content that I could never hope to create myself. In order to shift the societal scrutiny off of people of color and onto white people for once, Dennis does what he does best: Biting critiques about the ways media represents and encourages our society’s racial disparities, as well as educating us on the often …Read More
White Privilege at Work in Social Activism
This week’s guest blogger, an accomplished writer and activist, Dennis R. Upkins, is here to tell us all about the manifestations of white privilege within the context of activism.
The Problem with Slurs
What is a slur? What’s the difference between a slur and an insult? Why shouldn’t we use them? Why do marginalized people get to use slurs that describe them and we don’t? These are just some of the questions addressed in this article about slurs.
Power Dynamics Part 2: Privilege and Power
In Power Dynamics Part 1, I looked at the traits and patterns that can be used to identify uneven power dynamics in interpersonal relationships. In Part 2, I explore how these patterns manifest themselves between marginalized and privileged groups in society.
Essay on The Bezine: Using Social Interactions to Create Change
An article of mine was published today on The BeZine, an online magazine that looks at efforts for peace, sustainability and social justice through the lens of art.
Power Dynamics Part 1: What Happens When Someone Has More Power Than You Do?
One concept that is central to understanding the nuances of social justice activism is to have a thorough understanding of power dynamics. This post helps get you there.
What Is Afforded to You
This post provides a break-down of the amazing article “Sick Woman Theory” by Johanna Hedva, which demonstrates how many aspects of social justice and the structure of society and even just human existence are interconnected: Disability, chronic illness, police brutality, racism, sexism, the medical system, the mental health industry, intergenerational trauma, socio-political theory, the medical and social models of disability, spoon theory, capitalism, and self-love.
Open Me: How a Kid’s Kind Holiday Gesture Turned My World Upside Down
Clarity’s guest post today looks at how racism is so insidious, it creeps into situations and actions that a white person would never think twice about, and provokes a sense of life-consuming threat, regardless how kind or innocent the intention of the original gesture was.
Yopp’s 6 Most Shared Articles
To celebrate the first birthday of Yopp, the social justice blog, I collated the 6 articles that received the most shares in Yopp’s first year on the internet.